Infer question

[ganbayou]

Hello,

I think this is the question I missed points the most...
Sometimes we have to combine different sentences that are separated far away in passages.
How can we attack this type of question?
Do you re-read the whole passage or answer by elimination or memory or...

Thank you

[ohthatpatrick]

It's surely one of the most difficult types in RC. The correct answer is sometimes testing the big idea of a paragraph or even of the whole passage. Other times, the correct answer is testing some tiny detail that has little significance. The only consistent thing is that CORRECT = best supported from the text.

If an Inference (or implies/suggests/most likely to agree) question stem gives us keywords that are only found in one sentence, then the correct answer is usually just a tortured rephrasing of what we were learning in the vicinity of that one sentence.

If an inference stem gives us a keyword that is found throughout the passage, then it's very possible that the detail they end up testing either involves combining two ideas or involves looking in a less than obvious place.

If an Inference stem gives us no keywords, then our 1st pass should be to filter out the answers with the harshest sounding wording and spend our time researching the remaining ones.

Whenever I'm looking at Inference answer choices, I'm considering it a red flag if I see
- Strong/specific wording (only, unless, most, typically, primarily, tends to, generally, usually, no, cannot)
- Comparative wording
- Conditional wording

I can't blindly eliminate an answer because of this wording, but I will not waste much time considering answers with this wording until I've investigated the other ones.

Softer, more-likely-to-be correct wording is stuff like
can, may, might, some, sometimes, at least, not always, need not, not necessarily, not all

When you're down to 2, remind yourself that they're trying to make you pick the wrong answer by using verbatim words and phrases in that answer. They're trying to hide the correct answer by using synonyms or inverted expressions from what the passage said.

Trap answers = fish you in with WORD matches
Correct answers = challenge you because they are MEANING matches, not word matches